We have just listed a fantastic townhouse that is located in the heart of Coconut Grove. If you like to walk or bike to nearby parks, dining, shopping, the movie theater and even Biscayne Bay then 3102 Jackson Avenue is the perfect home for you. This freestanding townhouse feels like a single-family home and does not have any homeowner’s association or monthly fees. It offers 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths with 1,970 square feet of living area and has been updated with hardwood floors, new HVAC, new roof and more. The home features a light filled family room, large kitchen with white wood cabinetry, granite counter tops and breakfast area.

Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

Congratulations to our sellers who closed today on their home located at 4260 Braganza Avenue in the South Grove! When we listed the property our goal was to get it sold fast and for the highest price possible. As soon as it hit the MLS our team began a comprehensive internet and print marketing campaign. We also included it in one of our Coconut Grove Sunday Open House Events.At least 50 potential buyers toured the home in the first few weeks, and we placed it under contract in less than 30 days.

4260 Braganza Avenue was a magazine quality home that had been completely renovated in 2014 with impact glass, new roof and new floors. It also featured a chef’s kitchen, luxurious master suite with terrace and a spa-like bath.

Details of 4260 Braganza Avenue, Coconut Grove:

5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths

3,424 square feet of living area

6,500 square foot lot

Sale Price: $1,550,000

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

Inman News is the real estate industry’s #1 trusted source for trends, news and technology. Yesterday I was honored to be on the panel at their event “Inman Connect On The Road” speaking about listing presentations to my colleagues here in Miami. When they first asked me to speak on this topic (titled “Listing Presentations That Rock!”) I was caught a little off guard. They probably had no clue that I don’t follow the traditional approach when it comes to listing presentations. I don’t bring binders full of marketing material, fancy iPad presentations, or wear my finest threads.

If you know me then you won’t be surprised that my approach is probably a little different than most agents. I am a firm believer in being myself (hence the shorts and flip-flops) and making a connection with the client. After all, that is why I am in the business in the first place….I love interacting with people and I want to get to know their story. When I sit down in the living room of a seller we don’t start off talking about real estate or the sale of their house, sometimes that part doesn’t even come until the last few minutes of the conversation. Instead we connect, we talk, we laugh. When I find out that they are interviewing other agents for the job, I say something positive about each of them. And at the end of the meeting, I tell the clients that they should choose their realtor based on who they feel most comfortable with. The advice I gave was probably not what the moderator was expecting, but it was honest and it is MY approach. There are many ways to land a listing, but if you stay true to yourself and connect with your clients you can’t go wrong.

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

Congratulations to our seller who just sold her home at 2564 Trapp Avenue. This 3 bedroom, 2 bath property offered 1,684 square feet of living area on a 5,148 square foot lot. It closed for $812,500 or $482.00/square foot. The home was built in 1987 had been renovated with impact glass, new roof and Black Walnut wood floors. The interior of the home had bright open living spaces with vaulted ceilings that overlooked the private pool and lushly landscaped gardens. It was situated on a tree lined, no-thru traffic street.

At The Riley Smith Group we do our best to make every transaction as smooth & stress-free as possible. However, there are some issues that can arise which are out of our control. For example, the market continues to struggle with bad appraisals, particularly when dealing with larger lending institutions. We saw this play out at 2564 Trapp Avenue. The first appraisal came in significantly lower than our contract price. How could this happen? The appraiser was from out of the area (which is what happens when you use a non-local lender) and was not familiar with the Grove’s quirky real estate market. They used comparables that sold for land value, they did not make the correct adjustments for the chosen comparables, and they used erroneous information.

With such a low appraisal, the buyers were worried that they were overpaying for the house (and understandably hoping for a reduction in price). We dissected the appraisal and wrote a letter to explain to the buyer exactly why we felt it was flawed. Below is a portion of the letter that we sent:

Dear xxxx,

We believe that the comparables the appraiser used (listed below) and the reasoning for adjusting the numbers are erroneous, let us explain:

xxxx Swanson Avenue*: The size of this house is dramatically smaller (appraiser’s generally try to choose homes within + or – 20% of the SFLA) with only 1 bathroom and was built in the 1930’s.Without doing an inspection of the home there is no way to determine if the house was structurally sound, needed a new roof or needed the electrical & plumbing systems replaced as is common with many homes built over 75 years ago. The appraiser also noted that the home had impact glass which is not mentioned on the MLS. The appraiser also shows the home as being 1,105 SFLA but the MLS says the home is 931 SFLA.

xxxx Tequesta Lane*: This home had no pool and a 3,500 SF lot with no room to add a pool. Homes without pools in the Grove are much more difficult to sell which generally results in a much lower SPPSF. The appraiser adjusted for the lack of a pool by subtracting $15,000 which is far below the cost to add a pool and far below the negative effect on overall value.

xxxx Kirk Street*: We sold this home to a builder for land value. It is being torn down. The seller bought the home with the intention of gutting and expanding it but determined that the cost would be so high that she would have over-invested in the property and would not be able to get her money out if she decided to sell. If the appraiser would have checked with us we would have explained this to her.

xxxx Overbrook Street*: This is a 1950’s home that sits at the corner of Overbrook and SW 22nd Ave. which is a very busy corner. Also, the house does not have impact windows and has a unique layout because of the way it has been expanded over the years. (we sold the home a few years ago and are familiar with it).

The appraiser notes that they gave the most weight to Swanson and Tequesta which we see no logical basis for as noted above.

Below is a link to 9 comparables which, based on our knowledge of the Grove market, substantiate the SP/SF Trapp is under contract for ($482).

Please contact us if you would like to discuss.

Regards,

Riley Smith

*Exact addresses were removed here to protect the privacy of the current homeowners.

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After some back and forth, the buyer agreed to try a different lending company and got a new appraisal which came in right on the money. We closed a few weeks later.

This is just one example of the many issues that can arise in a transaction. As Coconut Grove’s top producing Realtor for 7 years, I am able to help my clients overcome these bumps in the road and get the deal to the closing table. Contact us today at 305-342-1623 if you are interested in buying or selling a Coconut Grove home and would like to benefit from our years of experience.

If you are a regular reader of my blog, then you know that I have been harping on how slow our market has been over the past few months. Coconut Grove has seen the number of overall sales decline dramatically in 2016.

Today I wanted to show you that Coconut Grove is not alone in this trend, and that we are experiencing similar numbers across Miami. Ron Shuffield, President and CEO of EWM Realty International, was recently interviewed about Miami’s luxury home market and the numbers he presented were sobering to say the least. For instance, this past October was the worst October for Miami homes priced over $1,000,000 since 2011. Comparing October to last year, there were only 94 luxury homes sold in Miami, whereas there were 145 sold in 2015. To make matters worse, the sluggish sales are combined with excess inventory – Miami currently has a 3 year supply of luxury homes on the market whereas an 18 months supply is healthy. These factors have lead to buyers sitting on the sidelines and feeling like they can shop around for deals.

Shuffield’s advice? REDUCE, REDUCE, REDUCE. He says “It is our astute sellers that are making sales today,” and “When you have inventory growing to this level and sales falling off, the major motivator to buyers is going to be an adjustment in price.”

To really bring the message home about how important price reductions are, take a look at these two Coconut Grove sales that came across the wire this morning:

If you have your home listed for sale and aren’t getting much activity, you should seriously consider a price reduction to make the home stand out.

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

I just received this email from a friend of mine who is looking for a rental property in Coconut Grove. He inquired about a house on Craig’s List that said it was located on the corner of Poinciana Avenue and Main Highway, offering 800 square feet, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath for $675/month. After his inquiry, he received the below communication.

Hello,

Thanks for your interest and inquiries about my house. Yes the house is still available for rent and we are looking for a responsible person/family to occupy and maintain the house now that we are not around. Myself and my wife just traveled to National City, California for a program called SERVING IN MISSION (SIM), you can view the link for more info: (http://www.sim.org/index.php/content/our-purpose). We will be away for 3 to 4 years or more that is why I have made up my mind to put up my house for rent to whom ever that will take good care of it. However, my initial plan was to sell the house but it was not successful because the Realtor raised the price which made it difficult for me to sell before leaving the States so never mind if you see the for sale sign in front of the house, It has already been taken off the market as for sale so there is no need to contact any Realtor. I want you to understand that I spent a lot on my property that you have requested to rent, so I will solicit for your absolute maintenance of this house and would want you to treat it as your own because cleanliness they say is next to Godliness. It is not all about the money to be paid on rent or spent; it is all about a good maintenance culture which I want you to adopt on the property. I want you to keep it tidy all the time so that I would be full of smiles whenever I come and above all, a good, strong and tight relationship between us when I come for a check up. Please one more thing, I wouldn’t like to have any benefit of trust in you because I want to stand in your words that the property would be well taken care of all the time. I believe you have seen how lovely it is if from only the pictures you saw in my posting compare to the 100% comfort to be derived from it as you are an occupant.

Rental Price: $675 per month and security Deposit is $675 (Security Deposit is Refundable) Utilities included in monthly rent because i have shares with the utility company so they makes sure it doesn’t go off for a minute..

Pets are Welcome.

Here is the address to the house: xxxx Poinciana Ave,Miami, FL 33133

Bedroom: 2

Bathroom: 1

Living Building Square Footage: 800

I may not be returning to the house because we plan on buying another house upon arrival. You can also call or text me +1(501)613-7085.

SO IF YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED I WILL WANT YOU TO FILL THE RENT APPLICATION FORM BELOW:

RENT APPLICATION FORM.

Name (First name/ Middle name/Surname ) : __________?

Phone numbers (home,cell and office line ) # :__________?

E-mail :__________?

Best time to call :__________?

Marital Status:__________?

How many proposed occupants :__________?

List all in addition to yourself including approx age :__________?

Present Address :__________?

City/State :__________?

Will you have pets :__________?

Please describe Breed, size :__________?

Personality of pet :__________?

Preferred move in date :__________?

Intended length of lease:__________?

Do you agree to pay the payment before you move in:__________?

Earliest possible date of deposit payment:__________?

Length of previous tenancy :__________?

Present occupation :__________?

Are you a section 8 applicant

Do you work late night :__________?

Do you smoke :__________?

Do you drink :__________?

Send your picture or family picture __________?

Looking forward to hearing back from you with all this details so that i can have them in my file in case of issuing your rent payment receipt to you and for contacting you. Your quick response will be highly appreciated so that we can discuss on how to get the documents and the keys of my property to you via Express Delivery Services. May GOD bless you and your family.

This type of scam is unfortunately a common occurrence in our industry. You typically see them when people are looking for rental properties on Craig’s List or even Zillow. The criminal pretends he/she is the owner of the home and tries to “lease” you the property. The potential renter writes a check or sends a wire only to find out a few days later that they were not speaking with the owner of the home, they do not have a legally binding lease and they have lost their money.

The email above has many red flags that can help you identify that it is a scam:

The price is too good to be true. Let’s face it, this is Coconut Grove and you are not going to find a charming cottage with 2 bedrooms, 1 bath + utilities for $675.00/month.

The owner says he won’t be returning to the house for several years. When all communication must be done via email or phone it is a definite warning sign.

“Nevermind the real estate sign in the front yard” and “Don’t call the realtor listed on the sign”. They prey on homes that are listed for sale because they can pull the images off of the internet. Another reason they like homes that are listed for sale is because some agents put their listings on lock-box (not in Coconut Grove, but in other areas it is very common) which means that the criminal could potentially give the renter access to the house to see it making it seem more legit.

The landlord has an out of town phone number. This does not apply to every case, but you should definitely take notice when the landlord does not have a local phone number.

Ways you can protect yourself:

Do an internet search on the landlord. Google their name, look them up on Facebook and find out whatever you can on them.

Use Public Records to find out the real homeowner’s name and ask for the their ID to make sure it is the same person.

Talk to the neighbors before you sign. Neighbors generally know what is going on and can be a good source of information.

Beware of signs that the locks have been recently changed, particularly with vacant properties.

Save all of your communications, receipts, checks, phone numbers and addresses in case you need to get the police involved.

Below is a great example of how the scam works:

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

The Coconut Grove condo market has slowed down dramatically this year. The data below shows that most buildings will experience fewer sales in 2016 than they did in the previous year. The only condo building which has surpassed its sales from 2015 is Grove Isle. Grove Isle is always an anomaly in our market because it is unique in location and amenities. It never seems to follow the ebb and flow of the rest of the market.

Despite a lack of sales, condo owners should be happy with the prices this year. As you can see below, every building has either increased its values or remained steady from the previous year.

I believe over the next few months we will start to see an increase in the number of condos selling as we get our usual influx of snowbirds looking for second homes. This segment of buyers particularly boosts the condo market because they are looking for properties that are lock-and- go.

Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

Congratulations to HB Construction who received first place at The Florida’s Best Awards presented by the Builder’s Association of South Florida (BASF) in the category of “Builder’s Overall Product” for the home located at 4070 Woodridge Road. Entries in this category included new construction homes valued over $1,000,000. They were judged based on the finishes, design and overall quality of construction.

We currently have 4070 Woodridge Road listed for sale at $2,425,000. The home offers spacious and light filled living spaces and a spectacular kitchen featuring top of the line appliances. One of my favorite parts of the home is the dramatic floating staircase leading to the upstairs bedrooms and loft. The expansive master suite has a large walk-in closet, spa-like bath and private outdoor terrace. There is 1 bedroom/2.5 baths downstairs, with 4 bedrooms/3 baths upstairs. For more details and information on this home click here.

HB Construction has a great reputation in Coconut Grove for their professional service and quality construction. Some of their other residential projects in the Grove include 2541 Trapp Avenue and 1701 Tigertail Avenue.

Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

One of the real estate related questions that I get asked a lot is about land values in Coconut Grove. It’s not surprising as buildable land has been one of the hottest segments in our market over the past few years. In fact, many sales occur before they even hit the MLS. So far in 2016 there have been approximately 21 properties that sold for land value. These sales have closed for an average “sale price/square foot” of $85.00. Keep in mind that you have to be cautious with this figure because as you can see from the chart, there are a wide range of values. Some of the factors that come into consideration when valuing a piece of land including location (gated, non-gated, waterfront, non-waterfront), what size of house can you build on the lot which can be affected by its shape, how many trees are on the site and where are they located, does a new water line have to be installed on the street prior to building (which has to be paid by the developer), is the lot dividable (a point of contention among residents in the Grove) plus much more.

Although prices are strong, we have seen the number of land sales slow down over the past 6 months. This trend is in line with the rest of the Grove which has experienced a drastic reduction in the number of properties sold. If you are considering buying or selling a piece of land in Coconut Grove, it is essential that you work with an experienced agent who can help you determine its true value.

*The properties above are made up of sales that were classified as land on the MLS, as well as those that sold for land value but were labeled as single family homes.

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.

Over the past few months we have seen the number of home sales in Coconut Grove come to a screeching halt. In fact, there were just 5 single-family home sales in Coconut Grove during the month of October!! That is a huge drop compared to past October sales figures. Take a look at the October sales over the past 5 years and you can see how slow the market currently is.

The world is captivated and consumed by the Presidential election and the average home-buyer or seller is no different. On our team we have noticed a decreased number of showings on our listings, as well as lower internet activity on home search sites over the past few months. Many clients have specifically told us they are waiting to make any type of real estate decision until the election is over whether that be listing their home, dropping the price or putting something under contract. All of these factors have contributed to a decrease in the number of sales.

Check out the below Internet Activity Report from Realtor.com on one of our current listings. The number of home searches has fallen as we approach election day. You can see that the number of times the property showed up in the search results during August was 3,231, whereas the number of times it showed up in search results during the month of October was just 1,676. In a normal year those numbers would be reversed because activity always picks up in the Fall but the anticipation of the election has distracted everyone.

That being said, regardless of the election results we should all look forward to the market getting back to normal next week!!

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Riley Smith has been the #1 Top Producing Coconut Grove Realtor for over 7 years and knows the market inside and out. If you would like to buy or sell real estate in Coconut Grove, please contact us at 305-342-1623 or send us a message here.